Ajinomoto!

This Ajinomoto TV ad is funny. Please check it out. Anyway do you know what is Ajinomoto?

I wonder this depends on each culture, countries. In Japan, we say our tongue can sense 5 tastes, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour and "UMAMI". I can't find exactly English word for UMAMI. Acutally UMAMI taste was found by Japanese proffeccesser, I heard in foreign countires it is called UMAMI. We can sense UMAMI itself, but particular feature of UMAMI is bringing out the flavor of the taste. We use 3 kinds of food to make this UMAMI for Japanese food. Have you ever seen Iron cheff? If so, you would remember Japanese iron cheff make soup (DASHI) by a mountain of dried-bonito flake. That is the ONE, three kinds of UMAMI come from each of dried-bonito flake, dried kelp, and mashroom like dried Shitake. You can pick one and make combine the best match soup (DASHI) for food what you cook. In East and East Asia are area which has UMAMI food culture. However resouce is defferent. In China, they use dried bearded clam, dried shrimp,ligament of scallop, chicken soup, port bone soup, and some more vegetables. And I think basically western soup stock does not use dried seafood. Even though recourse are different, those UMAMI are come from "monosodium glutaminate" and "inosinic acid". Dried Kerp, ligament of scallop, chicken bone, their UMAMI comes from monosodium glutaminate elements.

Anyway AJINOMOTO is a Japanese company which their main product is a seasining named AGF. It's unique seasoning to make this UMAMI, white powder isteslf isn't tasty at all. Anyway as a food products, Ajinomoto is used all over the world. I think this is rare case as Japanese food. (Maybe Nisshin Cup noodle and Ajinomoto only? Pocky is not so worldwide). So sometimes they had to learn difficulty of food business in the world. Ajinomoto said they make "Ajinomoto" from sugarcane. However they had recall because they found out pork fat enzyme was included in Indonesia.Of course it is forbidden one in Islamic law. And Ajinomoto knew it of course but their check was not enought to use ingredient.*

Comments

[zuber]

hi there. i wanted a clarificition or u can say an answer to a query . does ajinomoto have any pork baed enzyme? or anything non-vegitarian aspect related to it? please let me know by emiling me at huntzuber@yahoo.co.in

[Mari]

Hi there
To be honest with you, I heard Ajinomoto is not good for health too. I have an Ajinomoto at home, but I don't use so many. it is not for health, I can't sense the difference of taste.

[robert]

I'm all for a natural savory. But I used to MSG like a muthaf**ka! Now I've matured, as you might could tell by my cultured and restrained vocabulary, I try to season my foods with complementary herbs and spices so that the natural savoriness is enhanced. I'm not always successful, and I usually wish for MSG, but I haven't bought any in well..quite a while. I love the dried bonito! Dashi is delish. And pork enzyme just sounds wrong. icky.

[huang]

Doesn't eating MSG make you very thirsty after that ?
Cud also give Chinese restaurant syndrome to some pple.
Heard that may cause hair to drop if taken in excess !

[shiro]

Pocky rocks!!!

and i've seen it in the strangest of places.

[Jedicraft]

love the commercial. I know a few girls from Hyogo who sound like that...

[Trejkaz]

That Wikipedia article also says that umami = "savoriness". I guess I know the taste just by that description... my favourite taste. :-)

[cecile]

i grew up eating chinese food and MSG or ajinomoto is definitely a big part of the preparation. but for "health reasons" it is being banned from most restaurants and households now. Hayy, i still prefer the taste of food with MSG though.

[Cath]

One of the many reasons why I prefer Asian cuisine over the Western's! =P

[Sarmoung]

Quite a few chefs in Britain are starting to talk about umami and how to improve the flavour experience of different food. Heston Blumenthal came to Japan last year and learned how to make dashi. He's a very adventurous chef and always looking for new ideas in cooking. People often call his style "molecular gastronomy". Have a look at his menu. The food sounds (and tastes) like a wonderful dream!

http://www.fatduck.co.uk/

And who doesn't like real Parmesan cheese?

[Gen Kanai]

Mari, umami is called "umami" in English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami#Umami

Please also see the SRUT:

http://www.srut.org/index2.asp

[Charles]

A lot of Americans don't like MSG because they think it is bad for your health. But just this weekend I found an interesting article about MSG that says it is harmless, and probably even good for you.

[Gwen]

There's a few things that Chinese food culture have that western food does not. Like scent of the food. Not using the nose, but smell using the mouth and tongue. There's a difference between chagohan in a normal pan, and chagohan in a wok. The wok gives a kind of "fried" scent to the rice. I would think that it seems umami is this kind of taste?